The Hindu : Devers wins, Greene pulls out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Devers wins, Greene pulls out

STANFORD JUNE 23 Gail Devers pulled out a win, Maurice Greene pulled out of a race and Allyson Felix pulled off a remarkable feat for a teenager as the U.S. track and field championships ended Sunday.

Devers, leaning at the finish line to edge Miesha McKelvy-Jones by one-hundredth of a second, won her ninth national title in the 100-metre hurdles. She'll seek her fourth world title in the event this August.

Greene's hopes for a sprint sweep at the world championships ended when he pulled himself out of the final of the 200 after an unimpressive semifinal race that left him limping.

Felix, who graduated from high school , placed third in the women's 200m to make the U.S. team for the world championships. Kelli White won the race, adding to her victory in the 100m on Friday.

Devers and Felix represent opposite ends of the spectrum — in speed and age — in U.S. track and field.

The 36-year-old Devers, who is more than twice the age of Felix, won the hurdles in 12.61 seconds. She also had the fastest time in the first round and semifinals.

Devers will be very busy at the world championships in Paris. She'll be running the 100m, since she finished third in that event here on Friday. The top three U.S. finishers qualify for the world meet.

Devers, a two-time Olympic champion in the 100m, has two national titles in that event.

Felix, 17, who drove most of the night on Friday to get to the meet after graduating from Los Angeles Baptist High School, came from far back in the field to capture third place and a trip to Paris.

Her time was 22.59 seconds, behind White's 22.21 and 22.45 by Torri Edwards. Edwards also finished second to White in the 100m.

Already touted as the next great U.S. female sprinter, Felix has the fastest time in the world this year with 22.11.

The 200m was missing five-time defending national champion Marion Jones, who is due to give birth in July.

Greene struggled in the semifinals, finishing fourth in his heat and limping off the track. He then pulled out of the final, which was less than two hours later, because of tendinitis in his right knee.

Greene, the 1999 world champion in the 200m, already has a ticket for Paris. He is an automatic qualifier for the 100m because he is the three-time defending champion in that event.

But Greene, who dominated the sprints in recent years, has struggled this season and no longer is the favourite in the 100m. His archrival, Tim Montgomery, broke Greene's world record last year and is now the favourite.

Tom Pappas won the decathlon with 8,784 points, second best in the world this year and second on the U.S. list to the 8,891 scored by Dan O'Brien in 1992. Bryan Clay was second with 8,482, followed by Paul Terek with 8,275.

David Krummenacker, whose hamstring was so sore earlier this week that he cancelled his flight to the meet and told friends he was pulling out, won the 800. He is the world indoor champ at that distance.

Other men's winners on Sunday included Darvis Patton in the 200m, Eric Thomas in the 400m hurdles, Jason Lunn in the 1,500m, Jeff Hartwig in the pole vault and Kenta Bell in the triple jump.

Other women's winners included Jearl Miles-Clark in the 800m, Yuliana Perez in the triple jump and Amy Acuff in the high jump.— AP

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